Weaponless Pirates?

     Weaponry can be a major part of being a reenactor.  Knights have their swords, archers their bows and arrows, civil war soldiers their muskets.  Some groups even have their own cannon.

     It’s not easy being a reenactor in the paranoia of the post 9/11 world where anyone with an interest in weapons can be labeled a potential terrorist.  And now after the shootings in Newtown, CT the same person can be labeled a dangerous psychopath.

    The weapon paranoia can make it difficult if not impossible to get reenactment events off the ground.  The pirate group I belong to couldn’t bring a pirate conference to a local university because of its strict no weapon policy.  A policy that was so unyielding the university wouldn’t let a lecturer bring a black powder weapon into a lecture hall for a talk, then leave with it immediately afterwards.

      Which brings me to the question: Will reenactors have to give up their weapons?  And if the answer is yes, how will that change the hobby?  What’s a pirate without a cutlass and pistol?  What’s a ren faire without jousting?

    Can we give lectures with power point pictures of guns and swords? Do we lose something without the hands on?

    For now the firing of cannons and black powder guns are allowed.  How long before they are banned?  What is a pirate festival without pistol and cannon?

      Are we facing a time when the only aspects of historic life we will be able to reenact are the arts?  Except needlepoint—which includes the use of a dangerous pointy object.

       If you don’t think reeanactors won’t become the victims of an overreaching government then read this post from Historical Trekking Forum “NYPD Backs Down Brooklyn Resident Keeps His Flinter.”  The post relates the harassment one reenactor faced when he left a receipt for his replica firearm in a Staples’ copy machine.